Got 'em today and they're pretty bad. They're better than the Dr. Gonzo bootlegs I've had for years, but that's probably because those were artificially converted to 16:9.

There's a lot of grain, tons of film artefacts, and more than a little telecine wobble. They are progressively encoded though, which is more than I was expecting. I just ran a clip from Empire through DVD2AVI and I couldn't see any combing artefacts.

The inclusion of the THX Optimizer is a laugh though, and the fact that the menus are anamorphic just rubs salt in the wound. According to DVDShrink the discs aren't even protected by CSS encryption...

How about a few uncompressed 1:1 Screenshots from the DVDs?

Would be great!

I'm uploading a few clips for Darth Psychotic at the moment, but I'll let him post links to them. They're in xVid format as it was the easiest way for me to do it.

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MEDIAFIRE

OUT DVD Star Wars 1977 Video Sample(s)

• Opening Crawl 1977.avi
• Han Shot First.avi


OUT DVD The Empire Strikes Back Video Sample

• The Hemperor.avi


OUT DVD Return Of The Jedi Video Sample

• megaupload.com: Sebastian Shaw & The Yub Yub Song.avi

[hr]

[hr]
MEGAUPLOAD

OUT DVD Star Wars 1977 Video Sample(s)

• Opening Crawl 1977.avi
• Han Shot First.avi


OUT DVD The Empire Strikes Back Video Sample

• The Hemperor.avi


OUT DVD Return Of The Jedi Video Sample

• Sebastian Shaw & The Yub Yub Song.avi

[hr]

awesome. They do look way better than my bootleg copy.

Thanks for those clips Mentasm. I'll definitely be picking up this set next month.

They look great cant wait to get the DVDs!

THX a lot Mentasm for the uploading!

I'll try and do the menus a bit later if I have time after Lost. I'm also updating my comparisons on DVDActive, in between writing the reviews. The sequels look a lot better than SW does on these discs, at least from the sampling I made.

*Edit* Ok, menus not going as smoothly as I planned. For some reason the program I'm using to encode them to xVid will only do the first title set, and that's after combinging them and playing around with vobedit/ifoedit

Thank you!

Won't be paying for these, should be getting them free however in the next week or so (whenever they're scheduled to arrive in NZ) Gotta say, it'll be nice to get a copy of the originals in 'whatever' form we get. Makes me laugh at all the drama over these releases knowing that the majority of the haterz will be going down the DVD store to buy em up anyway.

Good times.

Clips look good too, definatly better to have legit versions of these films

Where are the subtitles when Greedo speaks?

They're player generated rather than burned into the print.

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Thank you once again to both Mentasm and EE4. The videos are surprisingly crispy and sharp. Although we probably beat the shit out of the quality so much our expectations were low.

The 'Han Shoots First' video appears to be of a different resolution, though that could be because Mentasm was learning how to rip on the fly.

I'm sure the XO versions will actually look a lot better than this but these are pretty good though. It will be nice to offically own them on DVD, now I can finally retire my VHS copies and VCR.

So... I don't want to be an ass-wipe, but can we now have a side-by-side screenshot comparison of Mentasm's copy, and the Empire of Dreams footage? (the opening crawl)

I'm down. I'll get my special features disc right now and open photoshop.

edit: has X0 done the opening crawl yet? that'd be great to have 3 different screenshot examples for comparison

those ESB screens look real clean

The X0 crawl isn't quite finished yet. We have a beta version done with digital text, though it's not the '77 crawl:

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2006 Set Opening Crawl




2004 Set Opening Crawl (from 'Empire of Dreams')

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And here's a video clip of the 'Empire of Dreams' doc

http://sendspace.com/file/k3c3ph

Huh, it looks like they took the crawl from the Empire Of Dreams footage and just inserted into this new OUT DVD set. Well either way it's the original crawl.

Wow, those look surprisingly good. Especially after all the shit these transfers took. Now I'm convinced otherwise. Thanks Mentasm.

They're soft, obviously very much like the LaserDiscs.

They look better here than on a TV screen, that's for sure.

Han Solo shooting first on Youtube:

[spoil][align=center][flash width=425 height=350]http://www.youtube.com/v/FUkccifPmrk[/flash][/align][/spoil]

After having not seen that clip in that form in years, I still don't get how adding some split-second laser fire to that exchange changes anything, for better or worse. Or how this clip shows that "Han shot first," when in fact nobody shoots "second."

Lucas would like you to believe that Greedo was always supposed to shoot (or intended to shoot), so Han shooting him from under the table in the original version was in fact a preliminary (or pre-emptive) shot. The new "original vision" edition of the scene has Greedo getting his first shot, which Han didn't allow him to do in the classic edition. In that version, he "shot first".

In regards to how it's changed the scene for better or worse...well, the new scene looks completely ridiculous, in my opinion anyway. The original Solo character arc was different in the version where he murdered a character in cold blood. The Special Edition change was made, allegedly, because Solo would only kill in "self-defense". In Star Wars, we are to believe that Ben and Luke have teamed up with a criminal of little redeeming character because of this scene. A selfish, cold-blooded mercenary who would shoot first and ask questions later. As Ben and Luke leave the cantina, we stay with Han. When he kills Greedo and walks out of the bar flipping Wuher a coin and apologizing for the mess, it makes the viewer apprehensive about our heroes flying with this guy. I don't get any feeling at all from the new version other than confusion as to what the hell has happened.

I have to say that some of us need to rethink the perception of the original Han shoot Greedo scene as a "cold blood" or whatever. Seems like some guy shotting another guy who was pointing a gun in his face is far from a cold blooded act.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I mean, I see what ETAndElliot4Ever means, but the result of the scene is the same either way. The green guy ends up face down on the table.

I've been watching Star Wars since 1977, and I never saw Han as a cold-blooded mercenary just because of that one scene. I saw him as a clever dude who gets one off quick before Greedo has a chance to.

I do agree however that the insert of lasers zipping back and forth looks awkward, and I don't get why it was changed, but it sure doesn't change anything about the character to me.

OUT Letterbox Bonus Disc DVD videos uploaded to Youtube:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRHFcQgNFQ8 :: Opening Crawl 1977
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUkccifPmrk :: Han Shot First
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH8_vjpNHGg :: The Original OG Emperor
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwngAzS62A :: Yub Yub

For those curious what the menus look like in motion:

Star Wars
Empire
Jedi

They are all in .gif format and around 1MB in size.

Great job on the animated intros to the menus ET.

Are the animated intros anamorphic 16:9?

Oddly, they are.

They are absolutely beautiful.

That was good to see! Thanks. I can't remember ever having them watched with that background music, but I know I've watched the OT before 1997 on TV so it must've had that background music. Sadly I can't remember. Hmmm now what to like better? Old or remasterd.

A couple of sample files. I think they look awfully great, and I'm getting them in the mail one of these days. I bought the fullscreen versions, just for the hell of it. Mostly because I don't need 2 sets of the same release. The theatrical DVD's are still widescreen though.

A New Hope (theatrical): ANH Sample (10mb)
Return Of The Jedi (theatrical): ROTJ Sample (10mb)

Thanks for the clips! They were alot better than what I had expected. I might just fork out the cash for these. I wish the XO project would finnish ANH.

Thanks for the clips TJ Cobra. The quality is actually very good; I'd agree with those who have said it is the best OUT transfer we've seen yet. But, fuck... WHY ISN'T IT ANAMORPHIC???

As impressed as I am with the quality as seen in the clips you provided, there's still no way I'll be buying these to watch on my 16:9 TV. As it stands, I'm perfectly happy with my Dr.G and Dr.M/Moth3r copies. While not as sharp (Dr. G's) or with as good a colour balance (Dr.M/Moth3r's) as the official OUT release, at least they're anamorphic and will do me just fine...

... that is, until the X0 project is finished (please, please, PLEASE be done soon!).